Shunned House by H.P. Lovecraft

 This one looks like a short story, but it is actually billed like a 'novelette' so hence a separate review.  It is a typical Lovecraft story, with an unnamed protagonist, very, very long explanation of the history of the given house/place and more than half the length is actually an introduction, without any of the actual action or plot happening. I guess that was acceptable in 1920 with no television, internet, facebook, instagram, tiktok, streaming on demand and similar instant gratification goodies we take as our lawful right today. Still, if you can bear with the immensely boring and dull style of writing that is Lovecraft's signature, the ideas buried within are actually gems (most of the time; not always). 

Lovecraft found most of his story ideas in his dreams, which must have been a horrible experience. I would personally be mortally afraid of falling asleep every night if these would be my dreams.  It is also well known that Lovecraft was a vicious racists, considering people of other races than white as inferior beings. This also carried on to white people who weren't Anglo-Saxon protestants like him (WASP).  He hated Catholics with a special zeal. Thus it can be conjectured that many of the "monsters" he describes in his works are actually metaphors for his hatred of "inferior creatures" of other races and religious denominations. Sneaky Lovecraft.

This novelette is one of the only ones describing a type of vampire monster, though one which did not feed on people's blood, but their "life essence" (whatever that might be).  Lovecraft sometimes mixes science in his works, so they may almost be called "Science Fiction" though not of the kind we understand today. In this story he mentions Einstein's Theory of Relativity and latest research in composition of atoms, which was very advanced for 1920s when it was written.

Anyway, the unnamed nephew finds the monster, after it "dissolves" his uncle (Lovecraft seemed to have had hydrophobia), and kills it by pouring acid in the hole where it was buried. Apparently this dissolves the whole thing although he sees only an elbow, which was "2 feet in diameter" which practically makes the "monster-spiritual-vampire" about 30 feet tall.  Not a very classical vampire, but in line with his Old Ones Cthulhu Mythos which all were supposed to be giant monsters. Old One Vampire, then? Very cool, though described as being with pale-blue flesh of squishy, almost-liquidy quality, doesn't really gel with other vampire stories. Anyways.

One does wonder how did the 30-feet vampire-monster get to be buried under the Providence house? The French settlers of 200 years ago are mentioned (and their "demoniac" ancestor), but the couple were driven out of Providence and their son murdered by a mob of angry citizens later on. So who is the monster? How did it get there? It is not Ettiene. It is not his son. Is it Ettiene's "demoniac" father/grandfather? But how did his body get transferred to the New World? And how did a human-sized body (assuming he was still "demoniacally" alive, somehow), became a 30-foot pale-blue squishy monster? All that while buried 6 feet under the house and emanating "yellow mist with eyes" through which he "fed" on the inhabitants. Very interesting.